What's Happening in the Garden: Yard Long Beans Are Running the Show in August
It is August in Florida. The garden is either thriving or it is a crime scene. There is no in between.
Most of my beds are resting right now. The tomatoes gave up in June like they always do. The peppers are hanging on out of spite.
And then there are these.
That is one picking. One. Off a trellis I almost did not put in this year because I ran out of time in April.
What they actually are
Yard long beans. You might know them as asparagus beans, snake beans, Chinese long beans, or bodi if you grew up around Trinidadians.
Botanically they are Vigna unguiculata subspecies sesquipedalis, which makes them a cowpea relative. Not a green bean. That is the whole secret right there.
Green beans are a cool season crop pretending to be a summer crop. In Florida they get about six good weeks and then the heat and humidity take them out.
Cowpeas came up in heat. Yard long beans want it hot. They want it humid. August is not a struggle for them. August is the party.
Why I plant them every year now
- They produce when nothing else will. That gap between the spring garden dying and the fall garden going in is the hardest stretch of the Florida year. These fill it.
- They go up, not out. Mine are on a trellis in a container. Vertical growing is how you get real food out of a small yard.
- They fix nitrogen. Legume. They are feeding the soil while they feed me. When they are done I cut them at the base and leave the roots in the ground.
- Pests mostly leave them alone. I am not saying nothing touches them. I am saying compared to what happened to my squash, these are bulletproof.
- They keep coming. The more you pick, the more it makes. If you stop picking, it stops producing. That is a whole life lesson if you want one.
When to pick them
This is where people mess up.
Pick at 12 to 18 inches while the pod is still smooth and about pencil thick. If you can see the seeds bulging through, you waited too long. It will be tough and stringy.
They will absolutely grow past 24 inches. That does not mean you should let them. The name is a suggestion, not a goal.
Check the trellis every day or every other day in August. They grow fast enough that a bean you looked at yesterday can be too far gone tomorrow.
How to actually cook them
Do not steam them like green beans. That is where people decide they do not like them.
They want high heat and a little char. Cut them into two or three inch pieces, hot pan, oil, garlic, and let them blister. That is it.
They also do well in a stir fry, in a curry, or thrown into rice at the end. Anywhere you want something that holds its texture instead of going soft.
Growing notes for zone 10a
- Direct sow. They do not love being transplanted.
- Plant April through August here. You can get a fall planting in.
- Give them a 6 to 8 foot trellis. They will find it. They will climb the neighbor's fence if you let them.
- Full sun. They will take our afternoon sun without flinching.
- Go light on the nitrogen. They make their own. Too much and you get a beautiful vine and no beans.
- About 60 to 80 days to first harvest.
If your garden looks dead right now
It is not dead. It is August.
This is the season where you either fight the heat or you plant things that already won that fight. Yard long beans, okra, callaloo, sweet potato, roselle. Those are the ones that carry you to fall.
Give the rest of the beds a rest. Mulch them. Let them sit. September is coming and you are going to want the energy.
What is still producing in your garden right now? Tell me, because I am nosy.
Toni